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12/09/2019 11:00 PMThe process for reviewing the town’s charter, an initiative that was originally started in September, has taken on an entirely new shape under the town’s new Board of Selectmen (BOS) as it approved the first part of a two-step process that will specifically try to determine whether a new form of government might be appropriate for Madison.
Rather than appoint a larger committee to evaluate the town’s charter holistically for any sort of updates or change—something that Madison is required to do every 10 years—the BOS instead approved a charge for a government study committee at its Dec. 9 meeting, with the purpose of specifically reviewing options, looking at other towns’ charters, and eventually making a recommendation as to whether Madison should change its form of government.
This committee will pass its findings and ideas onto a larger committee not yet formed and likely including members of the first committee, which potentially will be charged with taking those recommendations further toward a possible fundamental change in how Madison’s government functions.
Former first selectman Tom Banisch had overseen the creation of a different charge for a charter review commission, one that was more broad and would have aimed to get a question on the November 2020 ballot, taking advantage of high turnout in a presidential election year. Banisch said at the Dec. 9 meeting he got “no cooperation” when trying to get that committee started back in August and September.
First Selectman Peggy Lyons said it is essentially impossible to meet the strict deadlines set out in state law while still allowing the committee members enough time for a thorough review and to inform the public of what possible changes would look like.
Instead, the BOS discussed the possibility of getting a question on the May 2021 referendum, or possibly even having a special referendum at another time.
“I’m comfortable with [a 2021 refferendum], especially if we’re talking much broader [changes]...I feel like because we’re going to look at a broad range of different forms of government, we need to take our time and do it the right way,” said Lyons.
State law requires a 15 percent voter turnout in order for a referendum on the charter to be valid, a level that Madison reached in its 2019 May budget vote, but had not achieved for the previous five years before that.
Banisch said he was not in favor of the way this two-step process would function, saying he would prefer not to “[drag] it out,” though he conceded that the timeline made getting a question on the 2020 ballot difficult.
“We are where we are,” he said.
Most of the discussion by the BOS centered around the complexities of what might come out of the charter review. Lyons specifically worried that the BOS might be overwhelming the town with referendum questions and large projects, including questions about Island and Academy schools as well as a potential renewal project for the school district.
“That’s going to have to be a lot of [public education] on all of those issues,” Lyons said, “and I would rather have this be more timely—I don’t see any urgency in changing the charter, but I do think we ultimately have to update it.”
Selectman Al Goldberg emphasized how much public input and education would need to go into a process like the charter review.
“My sense is, this two step process makes sense, because I recognize we have a lot of educating to do and helping people see this form of government perhaps in a new way,” he said.
Goldberg also said he felt that turnout would not be a problem as long as the public understood what was being considered, and how important it was.
“If it’s just happening in a committee,” said Selectman Scott Murphy, “too often that just stays in the committee. It doesn’t get out in the public.”
According to its charge, the initial Government Study Committee will hold public input sessions and potentially conduct an opinion poll. Committee members will likely be appointed in January 2020, Lyons said, and will deliver their findings in April or May.
Lyons encouraged residents interested in serving on the committee to apply on the town’s website at www.madisonct.org.